Scorched by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #7)(25)

“Hmm.” I stared at the two little girls for a moment, and a lightbulb went off in my head. “Tinari, what do you think about teaching Liu how to read? I know you’ve got a lot of time on your hands in the library.”

“I’ve never taught someone how to read before,” Tinari said, biting her lip. But Liu’s eyes were shining with hope, and she relented. “But I could probably do it, and Janta can help me if I we get stuck.”

“I would love that,” Liu said, bouncing up and down with excitement. “You can teach me to read in the library, and I can teach you how to cook here in the kitchens. Then you can make your own chocolate tarts at home, every day!”

I couldn’t help it—I grinned at their twin expressions of enthusiasm.

“I don’t know that Miss Tinari will need to learn how to cook,” Mrs. Tandry said dubiously. “Mages tend to hire help for that—they certainly never lack the gold for servants.”

“Perhaps,” I allowed, “but cooking is a good skill for anyone to have, mage or not. If we hadn’t found Liu, Lord Iannis and I might have starved during our trip to Garai.”

“Yes, and besides, I can spend more time with my new friend!” Tinari grabbed Liu by the hand, and the two began dancing around the room together. Mrs. Tandry shrieked when two cast iron pans unhooked themselves from the ceiling rack and began dancing along with them…to the same tempo, I noticed in shocked amusement.

“Magic!” Tinari shrieked, her eyes going wide, and a set of plates launched themselves from the drying rack and began spinning about the room.

It took a few minutes for me to get everything under control. Mrs. Tandry worked on calming Tinari down, while I used my own magic to return the dishes to their rightful places. Luckily, Tinari only managed to break two of them, which Mrs. Tandry assured me was nothing—she’d seen much worse. She promised to send Liu up to the library after lunch tomorrow, for her first lesson, and the two girls hugged and made their goodbyes.

“I can’t believe it,” Tinari gushed as I brought her back to the library. “I did magic!”

“You sure did.” Smiling at her enthusiasm, I squeezed her hand. She chattered excitedly about Liu, and how much she was looking forward to her cooking lessons, right up until we got to the library again.

After briefly explaining what had happened to Janta—who was disappointed at having missed the episode, but relieved it had been relatively harmless—I went off to find Garrett. Pillick was still hogging the magazines, and if Iannis was interrogating Father Calmias, I wanted to catch the tail end of it.

A quick check-in with Dira, the Mages Guild receptionist, confirmed that Iannis was in his office with Garrett. I knocked briefly on the door, then let myself in. Iannis and Garrett were seated at his desk, in deep discussion, while Fenris was curled up in wolf form on the floor by Iannis’s feet, well away from Garrett’s keen gaze.

“Miss Baine,” Garrett said, sounding a little surprised as he twisted in his chair to face me. “Did you and Mr. Pillick already finish up at the library?”

“Mr. Pillick is still going through the magazines,” I said, settling into the visitor’s chair next to him. “He seemed unwilling to share the task, so I thought I would come here and see what you two were up to.” I turned to face Iannis with a smile. “How did your interrogation with Father Calmias go?”

“Not as well as I’d hoped,” Iannis admitted. “Time on Prison Isle has not dulled his will or his wit—he has a very clever tongue, and no matter what line of questioning I took, I was unable to prove any direct complicity between him and Thorgana. His combination of stubbornness and charisma is very dangerous—he will not renounce his beliefs, and his followers will continue to champion him.”

“Pity we can’t just kill him,” Garrett noted dispassionately. “But that would only make him a martyr.”

“Indeed,” Iannis said, “and that is the last thing I want. We must find a way to break him, and the hold he has over his followers. I have him under guard in one of the guest rooms, and I will tackle him again tomorrow.” He glanced toward the clock. “For now, I have a disaster-planning class in the ballroom that’s about to start any minute.” He stood up.

“Let me know if you need anything,” I said, rising from my chair as well. I caught him by the hand before he could leave, then pressed a kiss to his lips, heedless of Garrett and Fenris’s presence. Truthfully, I was hoping to annoy Garrett a little with the display of affection—mages disapproved of that sort of thing. Catching on, Iannis slipped an arm around my waist and kissed me back, brief but hard. I could taste his frustration. Looking up at him questioningly, I silently inquired as to what was bothering him.

“Later,” he promised in mindspeak, letting go of me. “Good luck today,” he told Garrett over his shoulder before sweeping out of the room, Fenris on his heels.

Garrett watched them both go, his eyes glittering with some undefinable emotion. “I suppose we should head out,” he finally said, sounding disgruntled. “I’d like to get something done before lunchtime, and Pillick will no doubt be busy for hours with the magazines.”

“Sure thing,” I said, my mind dancing with other ways to annoy or unbalance Garrett throughout the day. “What do you say we go for a ride?”